Done with crafting

[Vespar]

I must say I agree with the OP. Not everyone has tons of time to sit there and craft or spirit bond for materia and not everyone has tons of cash laying around to buy said materia.
I recently started crafting and on melding accessories alone Im pretty sure I have spend about 1.5mil on materia's just trying to get those half way melded. Haven't even started on my actual class specific gears yet since I figured melding the accessories would be better since all the crafts can use em. Materia's on my server are pretty costly and with the success ratio Ive been having it would probably take me about 3-5 million gil to meld all of my gear (possibly more) if I only bought materia.

This being said, I do not have time to Spiritbond like some people do, and even if I did, the chances of me getting the right materia's within a decent time frame is doubtful. The whole gearing up and melding process has turned me off of crafting (and almost the game) completely. Luckily, my husband was smart in the beginning of launch and spent most of his time crafting back then when prices were lower on materia due to all the RMT issues. So he has all crafts maxed out in gear and melds and I can steal him to craft stuff for me... But its not exactly what I want. I dont like having to rely on his character for crafted stuff, so until I can make millions of gil to get through the melds on all my crafts I'll likely be frustrated, broke, and forced to rely on him or other crafters.

[Etupa]

@Op, Don't Bother, with upcoming extension and new LvL cap any white item for LvL 60 will have a better ilvl/stat than any ultra grindy stuff you can make today.

[Edli]

Do not try to keep up with every crafting class. Pick two and it will be much easier for you. Or you can completely give up and the more people give up on it the less competition I'll have on the market which suits me fine.

[Gardes]

I never could get crafting in XI because it was just bloody crazy right from the get go. I'm not a merchant type of player but I like being self sufficient to a degree so FFXIV's crafting was pretty great...at first. When people were crafting vanya robes and stuff in 2.0, I was just melding materias for relics for myself and friends, which was fine. Now that 3 stars are out, I can do /a little bit/ of 2 star crafting, which was fine. But now desynth and and even more higher stat synthing are out...I'm still at the same spot in crafting.

Every time I think about getting into the 3 star barrier, I look at the potential cost if I buy materias and the time spent if I spirit bond, I start asking myself "what am i doing this for again?". I look at the stuff that I will be able to make if I take the plunge and it's almost all...glamour tier. So much money just for that? What do those people who get rich off these even do with their money? Hell, I have a couple million on my hands from just duty bonuses and why am I even that unwilling to invest in crafting materia if it's just sitting there? Private housing? But I have a private room with cheap ass furnitures that I make myself and I'm pretty much done fitting it out and..I just stand in my room staring at the walls and then exit back out to do stuff. So if I pour money into crafting so I can make more fancier stuff for myself, would I even appreciate it?

Hell, combat content wise, I see so many people just content with tome gear and sanding it with hunts and I started asking myself, why do I want some HA pieces so bad if all that secondary stat math is just trivial in the min max scale and passing through mechanics and rotations weighs heavier than that? I feel like everything boils down to glamour and I feel...weird.